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3.87 AVERAGE
3.87 AVERAGE
emotional
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
emotional
hopeful
informative
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This book started off so strong — the kind of book I read historical fiction for. It opens with the British Invasion of Burma in the late 19th century, with two parallel storylines: one of Rajkumar, a scrappy Indian boy stranded in Mandalay, and the other of Dolly, an attendant to the fascinating Queen Supayalat, about to be sent into exile in Ratnagiri on the west coast of India. A marvelous friendship develops between Dolly and a woman she meets in Ratnagiri, Uma, the wife of the local colonial official. Meanwhile Rajkumar enters the teak trade, and the book is rich with amazing details about how Burmese traders harness the power of elephants and the Irrawaddy river to harvest the great timber. With these intertwining elements of the personal and the historical, the first third of the book is fascinating, beautifully written, and rounded.
But the book doesn’t sustain. The story quickly becomes both episodic and implausible; the women flatten into caricatures or fade into the background; the writing becomes flabby. As Ghosh skips from event to historical event, through the first and second world wars, he patronizes his readers with summary. There is one very compelling storyline, that of Arjun (a nephew of Uma), an officer in the 1/1 Jats, an elite regiment of the British Indian army, who struggles genuinely and sympathetically with what it means to serve his country’s colonizers. But the other storylines are mushy and dull. To the extent there are women at all, they are subservient and beautiful, or sexy and minxish and beautiful. The love triangle between Arjun, his brother-in-law Dinu, and Dinu’s (beautiful, of course) lover Alison is particularly nauseating.
The final section is the worst and most self-indulgent, as Ghosh hastily summarizes half a century of political events and his characters’ lives. It’s one thing for an author to give thought to what happens to his characters once the story ends, but the readers really don’t need the extended and facile epilogue.
I don’t hate the book, and I’m not sorry I read it; I learned a few very interesting things about Burma, about the teak and rubber trades, about the Japanese invasion of the Malay peninsula (evidently timed to coincide with the attack on Pearl Harbor), and about the bombing of Rangoon. These are the things I read historical fiction for, the tidbits of knowledge that I haven’t come across any other way, and that are more likely to stick when I learn them with a story embedded in them. But in the case of The Glass Palace, the story is rather weak, and grows flabbier as the book goes on.
But the book doesn’t sustain. The story quickly becomes both episodic and implausible; the women flatten into caricatures or fade into the background; the writing becomes flabby. As Ghosh skips from event to historical event, through the first and second world wars, he patronizes his readers with summary. There is one very compelling storyline, that of Arjun (a nephew of Uma), an officer in the 1/1 Jats, an elite regiment of the British Indian army, who struggles genuinely and sympathetically with what it means to serve his country’s colonizers. But the other storylines are mushy and dull. To the extent there are women at all, they are subservient and beautiful, or sexy and minxish and beautiful. The love triangle between Arjun, his brother-in-law Dinu, and Dinu’s (beautiful, of course) lover Alison is particularly nauseating.
The final section is the worst and most self-indulgent, as Ghosh hastily summarizes half a century of political events and his characters’ lives. It’s one thing for an author to give thought to what happens to his characters once the story ends, but the readers really don’t need the extended and facile epilogue.
I don’t hate the book, and I’m not sorry I read it; I learned a few very interesting things about Burma, about the teak and rubber trades, about the Japanese invasion of the Malay peninsula (evidently timed to coincide with the attack on Pearl Harbor), and about the bombing of Rangoon. These are the things I read historical fiction for, the tidbits of knowledge that I haven’t come across any other way, and that are more likely to stick when I learn them with a story embedded in them. But in the case of The Glass Palace, the story is rather weak, and grows flabbier as the book goes on.
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I really enjoyed this book. I wish it would have been written as a series to dive deeper into each generation. I’ve never read about this part of the world during this time, and I’m fascinated.
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
informative
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
informative
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
The glass palace is an epic multi generational saga set in colonial India and Burma. I enjoyed the first half of the book, where we got to spend a little more time with the characters and get to know them rather than the second half which felt very rushed.
I picked this up because it's a historical fiction novel set in Burma, which is unusual.
The book is set primarily in Burma (India and Malaysia, too) and focuses on multiple generations of a family between the late 1800s and the 1990s. The family is a blended one of Burmese, Indian, and Chinese people. They are thrown together and driven apart by the primary plot driver of the novel, British Colonialism.
Without the British, many of the primary characters would never have met and married. Without the British, as well, most would not be torn apart - many of the key conflicts between characters involve disagreements in how people should respond to the British overlords (fight for them, work for them, profit off of them, struggle for independence).
The climax of the novel comes during World War 2. It was interesting and sad to read about the racism woven into British policies towards Indian soldiers, and it was interesting but not surprising to read about many people's ambivalence towards the advancing Japanese (were they really that bad or just another imperial power?).
This book's epic scope offers something for many interests - there are love stories and interpersonal drama, a tour of the politics of Indian Independence, colonial social struggles, and World War military action. If any of those appeal to you, this book is worth a read.
The book is set primarily in Burma (India and Malaysia, too) and focuses on multiple generations of a family between the late 1800s and the 1990s. The family is a blended one of Burmese, Indian, and Chinese people. They are thrown together and driven apart by the primary plot driver of the novel, British Colonialism.
Without the British, many of the primary characters would never have met and married. Without the British, as well, most would not be torn apart - many of the key conflicts between characters involve disagreements in how people should respond to the British overlords (fight for them, work for them, profit off of them, struggle for independence).
The climax of the novel comes during World War 2. It was interesting and sad to read about the racism woven into British policies towards Indian soldiers, and it was interesting but not surprising to read about many people's ambivalence towards the advancing Japanese (were they really that bad or just another imperial power?).
This book's epic scope offers something for many interests - there are love stories and interpersonal drama, a tour of the politics of Indian Independence, colonial social struggles, and World War military action. If any of those appeal to you, this book is worth a read.
The Glass Palace was a fantastic read, that gave me a good momentum, especially in recovering myself from a long long reading slump. While I'm pondering on the Eastern philosophy and Neo-classical history at the moment, this semi-epic, if I may, turned out to be a smooth rollercoaster which captures lives and times of a migrant worker who made an empire on the background of the Empire, and then again came back to live a life of a commoner.
Ghosh's beautiful writing became even more dynamic as it connected to my own roots, albeit, a third, fourth or even fifth hand one. I still recall my grandma, sitting beside the firewood, recounting the story of how our great grandfathers left Burma, leaving behind everything they had, dropping gold biscuits along the way.
I feel like I might come back to this book with a detailed review, at a later date, but for now wanted to mark this on the page - just to anchor my fresh impression of this beautiful read.
Loved it thoroughly.
Ghosh's beautiful writing became even more dynamic as it connected to my own roots, albeit, a third, fourth or even fifth hand one. I still recall my grandma, sitting beside the firewood, recounting the story of how our great grandfathers left Burma, leaving behind everything they had, dropping gold biscuits along the way.
I feel like I might come back to this book with a detailed review, at a later date, but for now wanted to mark this on the page - just to anchor my fresh impression of this beautiful read.
Loved it thoroughly.